The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to gas turbine systems, and more particularly, to systems and methods for reducing combustion dynamics, and more specifically, for reducing modal coupling of combustion dynamics within a gas turbine engine.
Gas turbine systems generally include a gas turbine engine having a compressor section, a combustor section, and a turbine section. The combustor section may include one or more combustors (e.g., combustion cans), each combustor having a primary combustion system and a secondary combustion system (e.g., late lean injection (LLI) system) downstream from the primary combustion system. A fuel and/or air mixture may be routed into the primary and secondary combustion systems through fuel nozzles, and each combustion system may be configured to combust the mixture of the fuel and air to generate hot combustion gases that drive one or more turbine stages in the turbine section.
The generation of the hot combustion gases can create a variety of combustion dynamics, which occur when the combustor acoustic oscillations interact with the flame dynamics (also known as the oscillating component of the heat release), to result in a self-sustaining pressure oscillation in the combustor. Combustion dynamics can occur at multiple discrete frequencies or across a range of frequencies, and can travel both upstream and downstream relative to the respective combustor. For example, the pressure waves may travel downstream into the turbine section, e.g., through one or more turbine stages, or upstream into the fuel system. Certain components of the turbine system can potentially respond to the combustion dynamics, particularly if the combustion dynamics generated by the individual combustors exhibit an in-phase and coherent relationship with each other, and have frequencies at or near the natural or resonant frequencies of the components. In the context of combustion dynamics, “coherence” refers to the strength of the linear relationship between two dynamic signals, and is strongly influenced by the degree of frequency overlap between them. In the context of combustion dynamics, “coherence” is a measure of the modal coupling, or combustor-to-combustor acoustic interaction, exhibited by the combustion system.
Accordingly, a need exists to control the combustion dynamics, and/or modal coupling of the combustion dynamics, to reduce the possibility of any unwanted sympathetic vibratory response (e.g., resonant behavior) of components in the turbine system.